Haere Mai,Welcome,To all family & friends in NZ & around the world and anyone reading my blog ! This is my first ever blog, which I started on Black Friday, 13th May 2005. My thoughts & prayers are with you all. Take care & God Bless. Arohanui ! Kakite !

Blog Archive

Monday, September 25, 2006

#450 - #459Something Old

Not many people know that Smith & Caughey's, Auckland's only true department store is 126 years old !!! It is interesting to note, that Marianne Smith (nee Caughey) and her husband Willam Henry Smith left on a sailing ship called "Ben Navis" from Ireland on September 29th 1879 to sail to NZ with 125 other passengers. What nowadays, takes 24 hours by plane, took them 104 days !!! Not long after they had arrived in NZ, Marianne set up a shop called Smith's Cheap Draper Warehouse on Auckland's Queen St. For a woman to start a business in a new country and at that time, showed remarkable enterprize & courage. In 1881, her husband joined her in the business and in 1882, they invited her brother, Andrew Clarke Caughey, to join the busines as well - that's where the name Smith & Caughey came into been and still continues today, 4 generations later. William Caughey died in 1912. In 1932 at age 81, Marianne remarried to Raymond Preston. She died 6 years later at age 87.

#451. Something New

Chocolates; drinks; snacks - what else can you buy via a vending machine ? Try mobile phones & accessories, as 24 "Instantmoto" vending machines are installed in airports and malls in Chicago, USA. Shoppers are able to use credit cards to purchase mid to high-end Motorola mobiles, including the Razr and the Q. Using a touch screen, customer's can pick a phone's style; colour and accessories, such as car adapters & chargers.Correct me if I am wrong, but I can see it as been a golden opportunity for people to use stolen credit cards to purchase "phones" and re-sell them even before the credit card is reported stolen. Give some people an inch and they will take a mile !!!

#452. Something Borrowed

This memorial is a drinking fountain for people and their pets. It is on the waterfront opposite the city to sea museum. Paddywas an airesdale dog that chose to live on the wharves after his owner, a young girl, died in the 1930s. He was befriended by the local seamen, taxi drivers etc. Full story here

Footnote: I borrowed this from a Wellington blog, but.........I have lost the blog address so if it's your blog

#453. Something Blue

"Blue" can be anything - colour; feeling down; movies; language, the air - take your pick !!! The air is no doubt 'blue" at the present time, on both sides of the Tasman, as a lot of people who purchased shares at $1.70 each in Feltex in 2004, now find their shares worth next to nothing as Feltex is placed in receivership by the ANZ Bank. No doubt, questions will be asked of Credit Suisse Asian Merchant Partners, who owned Feltex prior to floating it on the public market at $1.70 per share in 2004. Feltex is a NZ icon, well known as one of the oldest manufacturers of carpets. How long will it take before the vultures start circling, to pick over the "bones" !!!

#454. Currently Reading

It's a new hard-cover book with a slip-in hard pouch which was given to me by friends. Up till now, I have just glanced thru it at the photos - old & new - but it does have words, which I have finally started to read. The book of 13 chapters / 170 pages, tells the story of "Smith & Caughey's" Auckland's only true department store and its 125 year history from 1880 to 2005. A biography of a shop & its people, with each chapter focused on a single theme, covering the time period periods relevant to that period.Once I have read it, I may look at selling it rather than just storing it away in a box, as it is a book that is worth sharing as the story it tells is no like other. It could be of interest to a "kiwi" living abroad who may of even worked at Smith & Caughey's at sometime.

#455. Where In The World Is It ???

This photo could of been taken anywhere - even in NZ. But.............who knows ??? Click on hereto have a look.

#456. Marmalade !!!

You either love it or you hate it. I hate it - it's too bitter for my taste, but.......if someone offered me a slice of toast with this specially made marmalade on it, I wouldn't say no. I would put it on the floor, get out my metal detector and pick out the bits of gold leaf !!!

The UK jam maker, F.Duerr & Son is marking it's 125th anniversary by producing the worlds most expensive one kilo jars of marmalade. They are using the finest Seville fruit; vintage Dalmore 62 whiskey from Whyte & Mackay, valued at 32,000 pound per bottle; Pol Roger Cuvee Sir Wiston Churchill vintage champagne and garnished with flakes of real 24-carat gold, so don't expect to see the specially made one kilo jars on your supermarket shelf. It would put more than a dent in your food bill, as just "one" jar would set you back 5,000 pounds (NZ$15,000) !!! Thats around 72 pounds (NZ$216) per slice of your morning breakfast toast - talk about expensive shit !!!

#457. Breakfast Treat

The word "marmalade" is thought to come from the Portuguese term for quince jelly, marmelada. Its first recorded arrival in Britain, was on March 10th, 1495 aboard the Portuguese ship, Farnando Yanes. It was believed to be an aphrodisiac. The first recipe for it, is in Mary Kettilby's book, Collection of Above Three Hundred Receipts in Cookery, Physic & Surgery. The english ate marmalade in the evening, until the 19th century, while the Scots had it for breakfast.

#458. Talk About......

A guest at the Miranda Brown fashion show was left looking for divine intervention, after putting her foot well & truly in it, when asking questions of another guest. He told her that he was their to watch his daughters show. When she asked what he did for a living, he said he was the Bishop of Wellington. She replied.........and I'm a porn star !!! Only to discover, yes, he was in fact the Bishop of Wellington - the Right Rev. Dr Thomas Brown !!!

#459. They Chopped His Ure Off !!!

A large wooden tiki lost his ure (penis) from the carved pou outside the new Whangarei Library. Three masked people were caught on camera, chopping it off. The carver, who made the tiki was moved to tears when he saw the damage. He said, this really degrades the mana and prestige of the whole community. Maybe they didn't have one of their own, or maybe the one they did have wasn't big enough !!!

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